


Finding You

by Meowser_Clancy



Series: Ked Universe [4]
Category: Ghost Whisperer
Genre: AU, Alternate Universes, End of the World, F/M, OCs - Freeform, True Love, Two shots, one shots, otp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-10 22:23:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7863523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meowser_Clancy/pseuds/Meowser_Clancy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of AU (but then, with Katie it's always AU)...noncanon to TLF one shots for Ked. (Ked being Ned+Katie Clancy, an OFC of ghostwhispererfangirl). (TLF being the story that introduced Katie.) (TLF standing for Their Little Family.) (Their Little Family being a mustread.) </p><p>In different realities, Katie and Ned meet and still fall in love. Because of course.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Finding You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ghostwhispererfangirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostwhispererfangirl/gifts).



Imagine it's an apocalyptic setting and Person A has just declared their love for Person B. Person B runs off, getting themselves into trouble and Person A saves them. Person B declares his/her love for Person A and they have sex.

* * *

A-ned

B-katie

* * *

The world was going to end in fire.

Katherine swept sweat off of her brow, watching as her world burned around her. These were lines from a poem, weren't they? Lines from a terrible poem.

She hated that humanity had become this, that it was now every man, woman or child for themselves. That no one could afford to ally with another person, another fellow human being, for the fear of being betrayed.

Which was why this was so damn dangerous.

She glanced at the man next to her, drenched in sweat just like her, his gaze probably as haunted as hers was.

"I used to live here," he said, reaching a hand up to cover his mouth, which was now trembling. "This was my hometown. My mother...she was living here up until last year."

Last year. Code for when everything went wrong and the world went mad.

Katherine didn't like to think of those days, those first terrible days spent running, spent wondering if your family made it out alive.

And those days following when you realized that they didn't.

She bet that Ned didn't either.

He turned to her, looking straight at her for possibly the first time since they'd been traveling together, always cautious, never trusting.

"We need to keep moving, it's not safe to keep still," she said, thinking of the group of thugs that had been on and off trailing them for the past few days.

"I never thought I'd come back here," he said, voice flat.

"Neither did I, yet here we are," she said.

"Is it back for you?" He wondered, following her down the wrecked street.

"Yeah," Katherine managed. "We used to visit here."

"We?" He asked.

"My family," she said. "My parents and siblings. We were so close. And you've never seen anybody as in love as my parents were."

She choked back a sob, she was remembering too much, and this was always what hurt the most.

"All gone?" He asked, because you didn't get more specific than that. You couldn't.

"Yeah," she said, voice barely there anymore. "I never even...never even saw them again after last year. Friends told me. And then...now...they're gone too."

"I don't know how to look at this town anymore," he said, picking up a handful of gravel. "When I remember so keenly when it was full of life."

"Well, that's the government for you," Katherine said, voice bitter. "Always greedy. Always soul sucking. Always stupid."

She was clutching her arms to herself, trying to get through this, but she could hear the sounds in the distance; another attack was coming.

"We need to get under cover," Ned said, voice urgent.

"I almost don't want to," Katherine said, eyes glassy and heartbroken. "I almost don't want to live more after this." She turned luminous eyes to her companion, letting herself fully trace her gaze over him; how every bit of him was muscle, hard and lean, hungry looking. How his golden hair was always falling in his green eyes, a green that you didn't see in nature anymore. "I want to see green again," she said, and realized that she was crying, for the first time in a year.

She'd known him for six weeks and knew every day that she'd made a mistake, letting this man be her companion, because she knew that when she lost him too...then she'd really be done. Then she would truly break.

She could not live without him. It had been only six weeks and she already could not live without his strong warmth beside her at night; they slept back to back for warmth and protection.

But she could never tell him this.

No. Never.

That's not how life worked anymore. That wasn't how life could work ever again.

Ned was there next to her, intense, breathing hard as he looked at her.

Did he feel it too?

She shuddered, too afraid, too caught in the moment to say anything because she was afraid of what would happen if he spoke right now.

And she was afraid of what would happen if he didn't.

"We need to find shelter," he said, moving forward. "Please, Katherine. Don't give into this."

"Why not?" She said, voice raw, begging him to give her a reason to stay on this scarred and torn earth.

And you didn't touch. That was a huge mistake. They'd only ever touched when fighting side by side or when sleeping back to back.

His hands gripping her shoulders almost made her cry out. Because she remembered. She remembered being loved, being touched, being taken care of. Because she remembered a day when life was good and filled with ice cream and trips to grassy parks, and now there was no ice cream that wasn't poisoned as a trap, and there was definitely no grass.

Not unless you escaped to there and Katherine wasn't sure that that was a possibility for herself. You had to be willing to live, to fight, to escape to the places in the world that still had green.

And she wasn't. Not anymore. Not from the day she'd learned of her family and how they were gone. Forever.

Until now.

She felt Ned's hands on her, and looked up into his gaze. She had a reason to live now, she realized, brain dull and heart quick.

She had a reason to live.

But that reason would be gone in an instant if he didn't speak up pretty soon. If he didn't tell her why she should stay.

"I want to see grass again," Ned said, and her heart cried out with how similar their impossible dreams were. "And I want to see it with you." His eyes were so green in that moment, a moment that would be engraved on her heart forever. "I love you and I don't care how the world falls around us, as long as we're together…"

He pressed a hand to his heart. "I can take it," he breathed. "As long as we're together."

* * *

Her hair was choppy; he remembered when she'd cut it, only a few days after he'd first met her; he remembered how it had looked braided, and in a sloppy bun, and how it had looked streaming down her back loose when she swam across the river the first time he'd seen her.

She had been, from the beginning, the one light in Ned's life. She had always been someone to look out for, pay attention to, and, amazingly, she'd let him come along with her; they fought side by side and slept back to back and Ned pretended that she wasn't the only woman in the world that he could ever love.

But Ned couldn't pretend that life would ever be normal again. Or that life could be lived again.

The way the world was going, that was pretty doubtful.

He wasn't sure when it had happened, when he'd realized how much he needed to tell her. It could have been in the past week. But it also could have been in the past moment, when she looked at him, ragged hair, ragged everything, brown hair, gorgeous eyes, a strong jaw.

She was beautiful. She took his breath away and the thought of life without her…

"I love you."

The words seemed to just spill from his lips and hang in the air.

And then he grabbed her hand, pulling her along. "We need to get to shelter," he said. "Before it gets closer."

He was afraid she wouldn't respond, he was afraid that this would mean the end of their odd, tentative partnership.

And he didn't care. He didn't care if she said it back. He just didn't want to lose her.

She was staring at him, not believing his words. "Katherine," he said, pulling her along but she was resisting, halting their progress, shaking her hand from his. "Katherine!" He begged.

"I have to do something," she said, face white, and then she turned away from him and ran.

* * *

Her feet pounded on the ground; her terror was overwhelming her. Because Ned had said exactly what she'd needed in that moment and that terrified her.

She couldn't breathe; she could hear Ned's shouts behind her but she was running blind, until she ran into the group of thugs. The same one that had been following them for forever, just stalking and waiting until she was away from Ned and easier prey.

And these were no big deal. These she could handle. They were a rough looking group of men, lazy and sloppy in their movements, counting on brute strength and the fact that she was a woman to get them through.

But they didn't.

She hated these men. The ones that had taken the demise of most earthly societies to mean that, more than ever, there were no rules, that they could take whatever they wanted, including life, and innocence. Simply because they could. No morality about it.

They were big; she kicked one and managed to elbow another in the face. Her mind was blurry; she managed to nail another and then shot at one, dropkicking him and felling him to the ground.

That was mistake.

The one left, the only one remaining, grabbed her, arms closing around her neck.

And she couldn't think, couldn't breathe; her brain couldn't process what was happening.

She didn't want this to be how she ended up. This wasn't why she'd run from Ned. She'd run to escape.

Not get trapped.

There was a grunt, her captor cried out and then Ned was there, staring at her.

"Why did you run?" He asked, voice raw.

"Because I don't know how to deal with this," she cried out. "With you. With your words. This is against any survival rule or common sense that I have learned this past year living on my own. People lie. You can't trust people and I wanted you to say it, Ned. I wanted to hear it from your mouth because I so desperately feel the same about you but the thing is, this won't last."

She was walking, fast paced, and he was following, the look on his face one of shock. "Did you just say you loved me?" He asked.

"That doesn't matter," she said, biting back tears, holding back memories. "It doesn't last. It's a lie."

"Who hurt you?" He demanded.

She turned her face to meet his, halting their progress on the barren plain. "Who didn't?"

The earth beneath them trembled and Katherine felt her stomach drop. They'd forgotten about what they'd been running from. Testing.

"We need shelter," Ned said, and grabbed her, throwing her over his shoulder; she fought against him but he was clinging tight, running hard, getting them to an abandoned house and towing her to the basement, where they sat in darkness, breathing heavy.

The earth shook as missiles were dropped onto it, breaking the earth, shattering it.

Katherine realized that Ned's arms were still around her, keeping her close; his mouth was near her ear, and she slowly turned in his arms, meaning to speak, meaning to explain herself but suddenly no explanations were necessary.

She kissed him.

And that most definitely was necessary.

* * *

She tasted like tears, and the food they'd scavenged earlier.

She tasted like desperation and sweat, but, then again, so did he.

And all that mattered was that it felt good. Was that it felt better than good. Was that he'd been stumbling around in misery on this earth for a year now, wondering what the hell he was doing in his life and why the hell he was even still trying when earth was so unrecognizable.

And in this moment, kissing Katherine, he found that reason.

All that time—this had to be true—all that time he'd just been living for her.

They were seated, and he was clutching at her, clinging to her, feeling her body beneath his, feeling awed that this was happening.

Above them the earth slowly stopped shaking.

Between them, it was just getting started.

She was clawing at his shirts, tugging off the long sleeved flannel, getting to the cotton one beneath, yanking it over his head, and it was dark, but her eyes seemed to catch the last glimpse of light; she wanted this.

She pushed him onto his back; the dirt floor was soft and cool against his skin, and she was arching over him, trapping him, enclosing him, her lips smooth against his, insistent, pounding.

He ran his tongue along the seam of her mouth; just to see how she'd respond, just to see if the things his body was telling him to do right now were correct.

From the sound she made, from how she viscerally jerked, and then just melted into him, clinging to him, letting him flip them…

It was.

Their tongues danced around each other, shy, and when they met Ned wanted to cry out from how good it felt, from how anticipation had raised the levels of pleasure so high.

Her hands were on his shoulders, his arms, clutching at the muscles there, running her hands along him, going to his pecs, his flat nipples; it was his turn to cry out when her fingers rolled one nipple between them, and then the other, and then her hot, wet mouth was breaking away from his and his mouth followed hers until realizing what she was doing and then sagged over her, moaning aloud as she ran her tongue over each of them in turn, biting at the skin there.

His turn.

He started pulling at her clothes; there were so many ties, and she had to do it for him; he felt like they were losing time from how long it took, losing chances to kiss, and be kissed, but then it was worth it when he heard the soft whoosh of her shirt falling away, when he felt her bare skin press against his; when he finally touched and her breasts were so damn soft, softer than anything he'd ever felt, more perfect and right and good than he'd ever imagined anything could be in this torn world.

The miracle of womanhood was not lost on him as his mouth fell to one breast, as her body arched towards him, begging him for more. She was incredible, she was irreplaceable, and the fact that her body was still so damn amazing after everything...made him weak, made him strong.

She was tugging at her pants; fighting to get them off, and it was like a dream, definitely not a memory, but Ned suddenly knew what to do.

Their bodies knew what to do what their minds hadn't been taught.

His fingers ached to be placed inside her and when he did so, she bucked so violently against him that she bit his shoulder; he grinned and, with his mouth on her neck, ended up biting back when she palmed him through his pants, making him wild.

And it was going faster, accelerating.

* * *

And she still wasn't sure it would be good. Because all she ever heard about sex these days was rape. That was the only time it ever happened.

But here Ned was, and she'd finally gotten his pants off, and she was excited but she was also terrified, and then he was entering her, his fingers falling away.

And he was big, he completely filled her, and it didn't quite hurt, just kind of pinched, but she wasn't sure how she felt about any of this.

And then it did hurt, and she was scared, but then the pain was over.

"Are you okay?" He whispered, his voice low and close to her ear. "We can go slow, or I don't have to—"

"Keep going," she said, as her body acclimated to the feel of him inside her; god, this felt...she wasn't sure…

He moved inside her, hesitant and she moaned, low and long, feeling something she'd never felt before, feeling intense pleasure, feeling shock from just how intense it was.

And they were finally moving together, hesitant but not awkward, until their confidence grew and she was arching her hips toward his as he pulled back, moving into her again, and finally…

She came first, at first not knowing what was happening, at first scared by what was going on, and then her body shut her mind down, letting her ride it out and she'd never felt this good.

He came soon after, ramming into her, spilling into her, and then they were quiet, breathing, living with each other, with the choice they'd made.

"I do love you," Katherine whispered. "And there's something else."

"What?" He asked, his lips on her shoulder.

She felt her lips tremble at the memory. "My name is Katherine," she said. "But my family always called me Katie."

She clung to him tighter; felt his arms clench around her.

"I want you to call me Katie," she whispered, and then she cried, for the first time in a year.


End file.
